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I was sorely tempted to prod Souheki for longer, fuller answers to my questions about the value of the Japanese tea ceremony. Upon reflection, however, I thought it better to leave her responses as they were – simple, straightforward, but full of meaning. There was something about the brevity of the answers that reflected the precise simplicity of the tea ceremony itself.

Souheki Mori is a New York City-based Japanese tea ceremony master. She was born and raised in Japan. She has learned Japanese tea ceremony for nineteen years under the Japan Association of the Tea Ceremony and was certified as a Japanese tea ceremony master in April of 2005, and holds the title of Jufuku-an. She was a prizewinner as a distinguished tea master in Contemporary Chanoyu Award in 2012. She established Tea Whisk, an organization that introduces the beauty of the Japanese Tea Ceremony to the world in 2011. She has conducted Japanese tea ceremony in numerous places, including the American Museum of Natural History, Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall for Japan Week, World Tea Gathering 2014 in Iceland, and London Tea Club. She also teaches Japanese tea ceremony at College, a private high school in Manhattan, Harney & Sons SoHo, and Japanese tea house called KeiSui-an located near Union Square in New York. She values the relationships with artists, so she has collaborated with talented artists including a fashion designer, photographer, calligrapher, sushi chef, ceramic and bamboo artists, koto, ancient harp and shamisen players and held tea events and exhibits to introduce creative worlds with them by her own unique approach.

As we go about our daily lives, the teas we anticipate are being grown, plucked, and processed. I have reached out to my connections across the tea world to collect their reports of how the 2014 Spring Harvest is progressing.
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Ippodo is taking the risk that New York is ready for a step up in Japanese tea appreciation, and offers some very delightful matchas, senchas, gyokuros, banchas, and a limited amount of teaware. On a recent visit, their selection included their Kafu matcha, Kanro gyokuro, and Hosen sencha. Staff were quite knowledgable, and gave an introduction of their Uji teas.For comparison, I went to the Ippodo online shop, where I found a 50 g bag of Kanro gyokuro for ¥2,ooo (just under $20 USD), while the US store sold a 50 g bag for $36 USD. Of course the store offers a rustic elegance and hands-on support in helping choose and explore teas, both value-adds that a website can’t offer as much of. It is somewhat possible that different grades are being offered, or that the market price of the tea has changed.

Dedicated customers for Ippodo will likely develop largely based on a previous affinity toward Japanese culture, or from experienced tea drinkers looking for more. It is not necessarily the place where the average teabag or bottle tea drinker will walk in and feel at home. Even so, it seems that Ito En also believes there may be enough of this kind of discerning tea drinker. Ito En is reportedly looking for the right New York location, despite having shuttered a Madison Ave. (also connected to a restaurant) store just a few years ago.

Like most teas, several key factors can determine the outcome of tea processing. For sencha, two of those factors are shading and steaming. Kabuse tea, or tea from bushes shaded prior to harvest, is sometimes described as a category between sencha and gyokuro, and sometimes as a sub-category of sencha.

Secondly, the duration of steaming is often either futsumushi (aka asamushi) or fukamushi. Fukamushi is the deeper steaming. Occasionally you may come across a chumushi. A useful, thorough explanation of the differences in steaming terms can be found here.

Generally, sencha should have a few key flavor characteristics that may vary in intensity due to differences in production: